Telephone Exchanges

The building in Trinity Street known as Telephone House was primarily an admin site located on several floors from number 17 along the length of Trinity Street towards Broadgate, Ironmonger Row and Cross Cheaping. The city's main telephone exchange was (as you quite rightly stated) located in Greyfriars Lane almost opposite Ford's Hospital and was called Head Post Office (HPO). However Greyfriars exchange was built after WW2 and is in it's present location of Little Park Street. In the early 70's Leofric exchange was built at the rear of Greyfriars exchange as is visible to the left of The Squirrel public house also in Greyfriars Lane. You asked where Keresley, Tile Hill and Walsgrave-on -Sowe exchanges were located. Keresley is in Greens Road, Tile Hill- Tile Hill Lane near the entrance to Tile Hill Wood School, Walsgrave- the junction of Walsgrave and Clifford Bridge Roads. Toll Bar, is as you said located on the London Road. The original exchange building can still be seen from the A45 behind Listers car dealership and was used for many years as a payphone repair centre when the exchange equipment had been stripped out.

Thanks for that, very interesting BB

Earlsdon exchange is situated at the top of Winifred Avenue, it can be viewed clearly from Spencer Park at the junction of the Coventry to Nuneaton branch line and London to Birmingham main line. My ex-colleagues used to cultivate a small area of land outside the exchange building to grow vegetables in their lunch breaks. The area served by Greyfriars exchange was (in my day) the city centre and largely speaking all the developments within the railway and canal boundaries, ie Warwick Road, Albany Road, Spon End, Coundon Road, Sandy Lane, Cashs Lane bridge, Courtaulds bridge, Priestleys bridge then, following the relief railway line, Walsgrave Road, Binley Road, London Road and back to the railway station. May have left out a few landmarks but with a map I'm sure you can work it out simply. Hope that helps.

Okay thanks Bad Boy, yes I know it It's that hideous concrete bunker with the microwave dishes. I'd previously assumed it was something to do with railway signalling.

I know dutchman, sadly very few marks for any telephone exchanges for design or style either in Coventry, local surrounding areas or anywhere else in the country. They stick out like sore thumbs especially when every square inch is decked with satellite dishes.

Hello bad boy, you seem to know a lot about the CTA, makes me wonder if you are ex GPO as myself. I worked from Mason Road and Red Lane before moving to Leofric exchange, my main job was private wires but I have been associated with the old Toll Bar exchange. If you have worked there you must remember Bluey Patel (sad to say no longer with us). Not long after I joined the GPO (God's poor orphans) as we were called. I worked in the HPO on the manual boards (used mainly before STD came in), if I remember they were called PMBX 4 (private manual branch exchange) and as the name suggests they were manned by young ladies and watched over by supervisor (don't mess with her) run like a prison. But having said that GPO-trained switchboard operators were the best trained and most sort after by the private sector. One funny thing I have to say "the original microphones were on a thing called a breast plate attached around the neck by a strap, now this may or may not be true but I was told the breast plate was replaced because of the inconsistent volume levels due the the size of the person's bosom, ie if the lady was well endowed the volume level was ok but for the smaller lady it was not so good and as you can imagine all sorts of debris fell into the mouth piece". Take it with a pinch of salt, I think it was just a matter of progress. Well bad boy I wonder if you know me, Colin Walton. ps I wonder if you remember Busby, during the transition from GPO to PO they invented Busby, a bit like emu. I have pictures of me in the costume at an open day function in Salt Lane.

BT use land in Max Road, Coundon and have buildings there but I don't know if that is an exchange. Back in the 70's, our neighbours had a party line phone which they didn't like very much. Occasionally, the phone wouldn't work and they had BT in to see what the problem was. Turned out it was something to do with dry weather and a poor connection. The remedy was to check to see if it was working, and if not, to throw a bucket of water at the wall where the line entered their house. Sounds daft but it worked. Things improved when they were able to get their own phone and number.

This was because each party line used one wire of cable pair, plus an earth connection to complete the circuit. This earth connection consisted of a metal plate or spike buried in the front garden. If the soil dried out then you ended up with a bad connection. Hence the bucket of water trick.

Hi, Colin, remember when STD first came in and GPO Telephones used one of the temporary shops in Trinity Street to demonstrate the new Call box equipment?

No, it's because Hull's City Corporation took advantage of a act of parliament from the 1880s that allowed authorities to build telephone exchanges. Hull was one of a few places to take advantage of this act. Later, they bought the local infrastructure from the National Telephone company and I guess owned the whole lot. It was never taken over by the Post Office and therefore remained independent!

Probably these ! All photos taken 24 Aug 2007

I think the white telephone boxes look awful.

Got to agree with you Tricia, I think they look like they have just been "primed" and are awaiting their "top coat" of bright red!

Is this one any better?
Exceat, 16 April 2006

How can I put this...... not really! are they allowed to paint them that colour? I guess it must be privately owned. Although maybe it's marginally better than white - what do others think?